Closing the CO₂ cycle by converting climate-damaging carbon dioxide back into kerosene, gasoline and diesel: That is the idea behind Synhelion. The ETH spin-off uses the heat of the sun to produce synthetic fuels (Synfuels) from CO₂ and water.
In June 2024, in the German city of Jülich, Synhelion inaugurated DAWN: the world's first industrial plant for the production of solar fuels. Thanks to a collaboration with the Empa Laboratory for High-Performance Ceramics, DAWN can produce renewable fuels around the clock, even at night.
To turn CO₂ and water back into fuels, DAWN needs one thing above all—energy. A large mirror field focuses the sunlight onto a single point on the solar receiver. The steam inside reaches a temperature of up to 1,200°C thanks to the concentrated energy of the sun.
This high-temperature process heat is used to operate the reactor, while the surplus is fed into the thermal energy storage, which is a chamber several cubic meters in size, filled with very special bricks. These bricks—a joint development by Empa and Synhelion—serve as temporary storage for the enormous heat. Overnight, it is this heat reservoir that supplies the reactor with energy and keeps it running.
Wanted: The 'super-brick'
